How to Avoid Bringing Bed Bugs Home from Your Vacation

Save your Sanity if you Suspect Bed Bugs in Your Room

You have saved up for this wonderful trip someplace warm or someplace exciting or cruising on the open seas. Almost anywhere you go in the world, you might encounter another intrepid traveler, the bed bug. Yes, bed bugs enjoy traveling anywhere you like to go, except perhaps Antarctica. Whether you decide to travel in the lap of luxury at exotic hotels or on a budget staying in hostels, bed bug infestations are rampant around the world, spring, summer, fall and winter.
Bed bugs like to sneak out late at night and feat upon you as you sleep. Once satiated, they then sneak back to their hiding places in nooks and crannies, behind pictures and inside books and dresser drawers. Their favourite place is hiding in the headboard, especially if there are fancy buttons and fabric to sneak under.

This six-legged pest has no mouth, only a straw-like appendage to pierce your skin and suck your blood. Bed Bugs just about vanished in the 1940s and 50s with the use of heavy-duty insecticides like DDT, until they discovered that DDT was as harmful to humans as it was to bed bugs. Alas, the rise of the bed bug has begun again.

In previous blogs, I talked about how to check your room for bed bugs. Today, I would like to discuss what to do after you have discovered bed bugs and are worried about returning home and bring the bed bugs with you. Here are some suggestions:
1. Inspect your suitcase for signs of bed bugs. Use a hairdryer to heat up the cracks and crevasses. My son would zip the hairdryer up so that it is blowing hot air into the suitcase for at least 15 minutes. This will scare any bugs out of your bag.

2. Before you return home, pack all your clothes in plastic bags and store them in your suitcase. Pack all incidental items that cannot be washed in their own plastic bag.

3. When you arrive at your front door, leave your suitcases in the car, garage, porch or balcony.

4. Immediately, take off as much clothing as you can and put it into a plastic bag, ready for laundry. You can even go so far as to have a drop sheet down upon which to disrobe.

5. Remove laundry from the suitcase and wash in hot water and dry for a minimum of 30 minutes on high. Bed bugs die at 45C and a loosely-filled dryer will exceed this minimum temperature and kill the adults and eggs.

6. Seal your suitcase in plastic and store preferably outside your living area, such as a garage, shed or balcony.

7. If you are still concerned, rent a bed bug heater from Bed Bugs Dead Bugs. Place all items that went with you on your trip into the smallest room in the house; a bathroom is an excellent place to heat treat everything.

8. Place all items in bags, hangers or baskets to allow the air to penetrate. Set up our Cube Heater, which runs on three separate circuits in the room. Set the timer for 12 hours. It will take about 3 – 4 hours for the entire room to reach 45C and over the course of the 12 hours, the room temperature will reach up to 60C and bake those bed bugs into dead bugs.

At this point, you have done everything you possibly can to prevent bed bugs from souring the memories of your vacation. You have done everything possible before returning home, isolated clothing and travel items before entering your home and heat-treated all items that went with you on your holiday. What happens if you still find a bed bug in a few weeks or months? Don’t panic! We can help. Your infestation is new and, most likely, the bed bugs have not spread throughout your house. They are often in one isolated area, the bedroom. You may be tempted to start with an inexpensive home remedy. Here’s why they are a waste of your time and money.

1. Powders only work if the bug walks across it. These days, bed bugs smell the chemicals and avoid them. These powders are expensive and a waste of your money.

2. Alcohol, Lysol and even Windex are equally as useless at killing bed bugs. They have no effect on the bugs and alcohol is flammable and dangerous. Save your money and your time and skip trying this method.

3. CO2 traps sound like a good idea to make as it is known that bed bugs are attracted to the CO2 in our breath. The problem is that I have never heard of anyone who has found them to be successful.

4. Intercepter Cups under the feet of the bed will catch a few bed bugs if they are trying to climb up or down, but most of the time, bed bugs are sticking close to their food source and so you will not catch all of them.

5. Bed Bug Traps can be put between the mattress and the box spring to try and trap them. The problem is that there is no reason for the bed bugs to go inside the trap. Once again, a waste of your money.

6. Freezing is another way of killing bed bugs. The only problem is that science has proven that it takes 72 hours at -16C to be effective. Here in Canada, we get a few super cold snaps a year but this will not be effective as your pipes will freeze if you try and chill your whole house. A flooded basement can be as bad or worse than bed bugs.

7. Steaming your bed is a viable option. It is a lot of work and needs to be repeated daily to have any effect. If you miss heating the tiny crack where mama has laid her eggs, you are in for another round of bed bugs in about two weeks. If you don’t already own a steamer, they can cost upwards of $100. Save your money and your effort and put that money towards the rental of a bed bug heater.

The most effective and affordable option is to call Bed Bugs Dead Bugs and rent one of our bed bug heaters designed for heating your house or apartment.

Preparation for the treatment includes removing anything from the room which wish to treat that might melt, i.e. make up, medication, candles and deodorant. To obtain maximum airflow, you will need to pull the furniture away from the walls, flip up the mattress so the whole bed frame is exposed and open the dresser drawers and closet doors. It takes approximately 2 hours to heat up the average room to a minimum of 45C. Once the minimum temperature is reach, we recommend you leave the bed bug heater running for approximately 8 hours in any room you know has bed bugs in order for the heat to penetrate the furniture, baseboards and mattress. The heater is set to achieve a maximum temperature of 60C. This is more than sufficient to kill bed bugs.

Make sure the only things you bring home from vacation are souvenir T-shirts and duty-free rum. Bed Bugs Dead Bugs is always here to answer any of your questions and save your sanity.